فصلنامه بررسی های حسابداری و حسابرسی
پیاپی 113 (پاییز 1402)

This study aimed to explore the factors contributing to the misalignment between undergraduate accounting education and professional requirements in Iran and it could present expert perspectives on the essential educational components and curricula necessary to bridge this gap.

This research was done employing the grounded theory method. For this purpose, concepts and categories were extracted by using the theoretical sampling method and conducting interviews with 14 experts. The steps taken to conduct the research included formulating general research questions, interviewing experts, extracting concepts and categories and their specifications and dimensions, classifying categories using open, Axial and selective coding, and presenting the final research model.

The final model of the gap between undergraduate accounting education and professional needs in Iran was presented in the form of causal conditions, underlying conditions, intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences. Throughout this research, several critical factors were considered, including the evolving legal and regulatory landscape of the country, the rapid technological advancements, the globalization of the accounting profession, and quality-related issues in education. These quality-related concerns encompassed the infrequent changes and updates to curricula and educational materials in response to shifts in the economic and financial environment, as well as the need for ongoing professional development among university professors. Regarding the needs of the profession, it was identified as the causal conditions and factors of the gap. One of the most crucial strategies for mitigating this gap entails reevaluating the weighting and timing of certain course curricula, revising specific lessons and educational programs, enhancing educational materials, elevating the practical knowledge level of students, diversifying teaching methods, and ensuring the adequate supervision of professors' teaching. Additionally, creating an information technology infrastructure for educational purposes, expeditious approval and guidance on the implementation of standards by the audit organization, conducting both virtual and in-person training courses, and encouraging professors' active involvement in professional organizations are all essential measures to bridge the divide. The consequences of the implementation of the strategies include the existence of training courses for all students across the country and the observance of educational justice, the awareness of university professors about the changes that have occurred in the profession with their presence in professional organizations, and as a result, greater coordination between the profession and the university is employing expert professors suitable for each course in universities, using new educational methods, improving the level of students' practical knowledge, reviewing and revising the educational topics that are mentioned in detail in the text.

Due to continuous developments in financial markets, the gap between accounting education and the need for the profession is very important and it is necessary to periodically examine this gap and its causes. According to the strategies presented in this research, several suggestions have been made for some institutions related to the subject of the research. For example, regarding the educational planning committee, it is possible to mention the opportunity to create scope for members of the profession to determine educational curricula, weighting, and prioritization in educational curricula. Regarding the role of universities, efforts should be made to provide sufficient support to theses and theses in the field of education and provide sufficient funding to employ professional professors to teach some courses so that they can share their practical experiences with students in some applied courses such as auditing and or transfer tax laws. Establishing greater convergence of the audit organization with other government institutions such as the tax affairs organization to recognize the standards developed in the preparation of financial statements to reduce ambiguity in the application of some standards can be considered as one of the practical suggestions of this research and a factor to reduce this gap.

Enhancing the quality and reliability of accounting information augments the potential for sound decision-making and risk evaluation by external stakeholders, ultimately contributing to the rectification of shortcomings in debt contracts. The amount of borrowing from multiple sources varies greatly among companies. Large companies with high credit ratings tend to diversify into different types of debt, while small companies with low credit ratings tend to have fewer types of debt. To rationalize the constrained utilization of specific loan types, proponents highlight potential economic advantages, such as decreased bankruptcy costs, reduced expenses for information gathering, and incentives for creditors to minimize monitoring. In this article, the aim is to investigate debt concentration based on the informational dimension of accounting quality. The current research adopts a quantitative approach within the realm of positivist inquiry. This classification stems from the fact that the concepts under investigation objectively exist in the external world, and there is complete independence between the researcher and the subject matter. Given that this research methodology revolves around delineating actual relationships within existing data, and presenting them in the form of a model, the study is categorized within the domain of descriptive research. For this purpose, data related to 120 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2020 were extracted, and the combined data regression model. The Tobit model was used to test research hypotheses. To calculate the information dimension of accounting quality, Lee et al.'s (2021) model was used, and the normalized Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) was used to calculate debt concentration. The research results indicated that the information dimension of accounting quality leads to a change in debt concentration. Also, the results of the third and fourth hypotheses indicated the effect of financial constraint on the dispersion of financing. Finally, the fifth and sixth hypotheses showed the effectiveness of managers' risk-taking on the concentration and number of debts. The environment in which managers operate is constantly changing as a result of fluctuations in the interests of individuals. This change in interests leads to a re-evaluation of risk by managers. Violation of contractual obligations by companies leads to the reflection of bad news in prices. In essence, to regulate and safeguard prices and mitigate the risk of information asymmetry for creditors, company managers curtail their risk-taking. Simultaneously, to secure their job positions, they adopt approaches that consider the interests of creditors. In companies with high accounting information quality, there is a greater tendency to reduce dispersion and diversity in the debt structure. This approach of centralization is a function of the company's financial situation and managers' risk-taking. Financial constraints lead to a change in the behavior of creditors towards the company and reduce their willingness to provide credit.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the behavioral consequences of job burnout in Iranian accounting and finance faculties with a focus on faculty turnover.

In terms of its purpose, this study falls under the category of applied research, and in terms of its methodology, it is descriptive survey research. To assess occupational burnout, the research employed the Maslach Questionnaire (Fogarty et al., 2016). Turnover intentions were measured using the Kalbers and Fogarty (1995) questionnaire, job satisfaction with the Brayfield and Rothe questionnaire (1951), and organizational commitment was gauged using Meyer and Allen's (1997-1991) questionnaire. Data for the research was obtained through 234 completed questionnaires from faculty members specializing in accounting and financial management in 2022. The analysis was conducted using the structural equation method, and the data was processed with PLS (Partial Least Squares) software.

The obtained results showed that job satisfaction is influenced by the depersonalization component. Job burnout, encompassing emotional burnout, reduces personal accomplishment, and depersonalization, and is inversely related to emotional commitment to the organization while exhibiting a positive correlation with the persistence of organizational commitment. The results indicated that burnout components do harm the job performance of accounting and finance faculty members.Furthermore, the findings showed that turnover intentions do not emerge as a consequence of occupational burnout. Instead, job satisfaction emerges as a crucial determinant of turnover intentions among accounting and finance faculty members. The components of emotional commitment and continuity of organizational commitment also have a negative relationship with Turnover Intentions. Finally, emotional commitment to the organization is the reason for increasing job satisfaction.

The result of this study shows that occupational burnout in the field of higher education can be an effective factor in reducing job satisfaction and job performance. While the results revealed that burnout in the three emotional dimensions, reduced personal accomplishment, and depersonalization, does not significantly impact the turnover intentions of accounting and finance faculty members, it remains an influential factor on performance and job satisfaction. Additionally, the components of burnout also affect organizational commitment, including emotional commitment and continuity. It seems necessary for the Iranian legislative and relevant authorities in higher education, including the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and the Islamic Azad University, to use appropriate mechanisms to manage the factors that aggravate job burnout to avoid negative consequences such as job dissatisfaction, leaving the academic profession and avoid bearing replacement costs.

Contribution:

 In the empirical literature, the issue of job burnout and its consequences have not been considered by researchers, and few empirical studies addressed the concept in the auditing profession. Considering the effective contribution of higher education in the preparation and promotion of accounting, finance, and related research fields, neglecting occupational burnout can cause irreparable losses.

This research aims to examine the various factors and elements that influence the cognitive dissonance experienced by auditors in their roles and responsibilities, and to propose a model for the development of responsible auditors in Iran.
This study was conducted using a mixed-method approach for analysis. In the qualitative phase, grounded theory was used, while in the quantitative phase, structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to assess the validity of the conceptual model. Furthermore, this research was carried out during the years 2021 and 2022. The study's statistical population included expert professors, members of the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants, senior managers of the Audit Organization, partners of audit firms, tax auditors, judicial experts, financial analysts, and senior managers of creditor organizations. For this purpose, 35 semi-structured interviews were done with the participants based on a composite purposeful sampling technique.
The results showed that factors affecting the cognitive dissonance of auditors’ responsibilities include irrational expectations and knowledge gap of users (0.394), the unfavorable performance of auditors (0.467), and underlying factors. The latter included a wide range of users (0.270), and a lack of sufficient surveillance over auditors' performance (0.492). Moreover, strategies for convergence between the expectations of auditors and financial reports' users obtained a value of 0.538. In contrast, the value of 0.468 was measured for constant monitoring of professional associations and surveillance institutes over the performance of auditors.
According to the achieved results, enforcement power does not exist to reduce negligence and malpractice of auditors and observe the professional conduct act. Moreover, educational centers and universities do not perform effectively to achieve intellectual and academic progress in audit and accounting, so there is a considerable gap between education and practice in accounting. Continuous surveillance over adherence to professional conduct acts by auditors is the main request of financial statement users. Hence, the standard's tone must be changed to increase social interest, help make decisions, and provide information to anticipate coming events and the standard must be formulated based on the environmental conditions and stakeholders' expectations. The establishment of professional associations overseeing the quality of auditing institutions' performance should involve comprehensive software systems, and evaluations conducted by peers should take into account audit quality indicators when ranking these institutions. The novelty of this current study lies in its unique approach of combining qualitative analysis with empirical testing to identify the factors influencing cognitive dissonance among auditors in their roles and to introduce a model for the development of responsible auditors in Iran. This study provides some strategies to match the expectations of financial statements' users and auditors. It can also help professional associations and audit legislators to create expectations convergence.

In the competitive business landscape, companies seek a distinctive competitive edge by diverging from conventional industry strategies and embracing alternative methods that prove more advantageous. This departure from traditional approaches is termed strategic deviation in accounting literature. According to this, our study aimed to investigate the relationship between strategic deviation and audit quality. In addition, the consequences of choosing high-quality auditors in firms with strategic deviation were investigated, too. In this research, the consequences of choosing high-quality auditors include investigating its effect on earning management, accumulation of capital in the hands of the institutional investors, cost of capital, and market value of listed firms. The research methodology is characterized as descriptive and correlational, with a practical orientation in terms of its purpose. To test the hypotheses, the regression model was used. Based on this, the financial statements of listed firms for a 9-year period from 2012 to 2019 were examined. In this research, the statistical sample was selected by the systematic elimination method. According to this, 134 firms were selected based on the consolidated/combined data of the test and statistical analysis. For this purpose, five regression models were defined. Firms with high levels of strategic deviance were chosen quality auditors due to controlling the high level of agency conflict. This showed that firms with high levels of strategic deviation have most likely selected quality auditors. Therefore, based on agency theory, it seems that the high level of information asymmetry in firms with high levels of strategic deviation led firms to choose and employ quality auditors. In addition, in firms with strategic deviation, the selection of quality auditors has led to the reduction of the capital cost and the market value. Employing and selecting quality auditors was not found to be effective in limiting capital accumulation in the hands of major shareholders and earning management, especially in firms with high levels of strategic deviation, but audit quality was proved to be effective in explaining the status of firms’ earning management. Firms with high levels of strategic deviation chose quality auditors due to the high level of agency conflict and reducing the firms’ capital costs. In addition, the selection of quality auditors led to a decrease in the market value of the firms. In other words, shareholders are also aware of the effect of strategic deviation of firms in competitive conditions and the possibility of more restrictions in such firms by highly qualified auditors. Also, in firms with strategic deviation, the selection of quality auditors led to limiting the amount of earning management, and the selection of quality auditors led to the reduction of the company's capital cost. In other words, auditor quality, along with strategic deviation, has been an effective factor in reducing a firm’s capital costs.

Creative accounting can be seen as a process that utilizes accounting knowledge to influence financial indices in information disclosure without violating policies and accounting rules and standards, leading to distortion of the information provided by the managers. This research sought to design and interpretatively evaluate the appearance contexts of creative accounting at the level of capital market companies.

The study employed a mixed research methodology, categorizing it as developmental research based on the obtained results. Concerning the objective, this research sought to prioritize research components at the level of capital market companies in terms of effectiveness by relying on an exploratory study and an interpretive rating matrix. The research approach in this study can be classified as a hybrid type due to the unique logic of data collection. It explores a phenomenon without a comprehensive framework in the theoretical areas of accounting at the level of capital market functions, where consensus on such a framework is lacking. Thus, it was initially tried to provide the dimensions of the creative accounting model in the form of a multidimensional model through analyzing the qualitative part by relying on the Grounded Theory method. To this end, Glazer's emergent approach was used to develop a creative accounting model by utilizing interviews made with experts during three stages of coding. The paper benefited from matrix checklists based on pairwise comparisons in the quantitative part. The target population in the qualitative part included 12 accounting professionals and university professors who were considered experts both scientifically and experimentally. In the qualitative methodology section, the snowball sampling method was employed for sample collection, involving theoretical sampling and methods for sample determination. However, the target population in the quantitative part included 20 financial managers of listed companies who were chosen based on work experience and level of technical and specialized knowledge through a homogeneous sampling method.

The research results in the qualitative part identified three categories, six components, and 36 conceptual themes in the form of a six-dimensional model, which were obtained through the three stages of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding in the grounded theoretical analysis using the Glazer's approach. Also, the results in the quantitative part, by utilizing matrix ranking analysis, demonstrated that the influence percentage of the foresight weakness component of the basis of creative accounting is higher than the other components of creative accounting. This implies that the absence of professional perspectives in accounting enhances the probability of financial distortion through creative accounting.

The obtained results indicated the fact that the weakness of foresight in the field of accounting and realistic disclosure of information may lead to the enhanced shadow of creative accounting over the functional level of capital market companies and expand the context of emerging creative accounting. This area of accounting procedure does not benefit from sufficient philosophy and knowledge support, and this issue creates a distance between the cognitive functions of accounting and the main core, which aims to increase transparency and protect the rights of stakeholders. As a result, accurate evaluation of the functional realities of companies turns out to be unfeasible.

In the present day, companies are not only responsible for enhancing shareholder wealth but also for placing a significant emphasis on social and environmental considerations. Transparency in non-financial reporting, including Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), now holds equal importance alongside financial disclosures. The more responsible and ethical a company is regarding social and environmental issues, the less incentive it has to engage in unethical financial practices, such as earnings management. According to the existing literature, corporate governance mechanisms have been created to reduce the representation problem between managers and shareholders. These mechanisms act as a monitoring system to align the managers' interests with the beneficiaries and can lead to reducing the opportunistic behavior of the management. The purpose of this research is to investigate the existence and direction of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and two types of earnings management (real and accrual) based on the opportunistic managerial view and also to study the moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms on this relationship.
To test and analyze the hypotheses, the panel data of 108 companies from 2016 to 2021 and multivariable regression controlling the fixed effects of year and industry were used. The statistical population of this research includes all the companies admitted to the Tehran Stock Exchange after applying some restrictions.
The research findings showed a positive and negative relationship between CSR disclosure and accrual, and real earnings management, respectively. Also, the board of directors' independence and institutional ownership have strengthened and weakened the relationship between CSR disclosure and real, accrual earnings management, respectively. In addition, the results of the reverse causality test confirmed the two-way relationship between CSR disclosure and earnings management.
Despite the extensive study of CSR in social science research, the reasons companies engage in CSR activities and spend much capital on it still need to be explained and clarified. This ambiguity can be related to the missing link of earnings management. The results support the research hypotheses and the opportunistic view of management in the Iranian context. For this purpose, the managers used CSR initiatives to manipulate the accrual earnings. However, due to the extensive adverse effects of real earnings management on the company's future performance, managers were less inclined to use this type of earnings management. Also, corporate governance mechanisms have been able to act significantly to moderate these effects. The results of this study carry noteworthy implications for policymakers, managers, and various stakeholders. The findings have significant implications for the stakeholders of different companies, including regulatory authorities, policymakers, developers of the organizational strategy of companies, and academics. Policymakers are advised to reward companies that pursue CSR activities solely for social development while being wary of companies that use CSR activities for covering earnings management. Also, managers can use the results of this research to implement and formulate CSR strategies, which will help them achieve financial transparency when publishing and disclosing the organization's financial information.